# Passenger - bignum too big to convert into \`long'

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/passenger-bignum-too-big-to-convert-into-long/173897>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [August 17, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/passenger-bignum-too-big-to-convert-into-long/173897 "2009-08-17T23:00:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![headache](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/958977/32.png) [@headache](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/headache)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/passenger-bignum-too-big-to-convert-into-long/173897/1 "2009-08-17T23:00:25Z")

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I have a very strange problem and can’t seem to figure it out.

I have passenger 2.2.4 and apache 2.2 running a rails application.

It ran fine for weeks when I decided to update Apache. I might also have  
messed with the users on this machine (OS X 10.5)

Now when I start it, Apache starts up fine, loads passenger, and  
everything looks good.

Then, after a while ( and I don’t know how long), when I just refresh  
any page, I get:

bignum too big to convert into `long’

No entry in either log.

Research this a little, I found that a bug in ruby doesn’t handle  
switching users well - a negative UID is read as a big number, which  
then throws this error.

Looking into my user list, I can find only one negative UID -  
‘unprivileged user’. I might be able to switch this to a different UID,  
but would that not open a security hole? Also - why is this user even  
used?

Has anybody else seen this before, and how did you fix it?

Greatful for any help.

Dietrich

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**Author:** ![headache](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/958977/32.png) [@headache](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/headache)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/passenger-bignum-too-big-to-convert-into-long/173897/2 "2009-08-18T04:26:19Z")

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On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 2:00 PM, Dietrich Speer \<  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid\> wrote:

> Looking into my user list, I can find only one negative UID -  
> ‘unprivileged user’. I might be able to switch this to a different UID,  
> but would that not open a security hole? Also - why is this user even  
> used?
> 
> Has anybody else seen this before, and how did you fix it?
> 
> Greatful for any help.
> 
> Dietrich

Dietrich, is it possible for you to generate a minimal test case  
that reproduces this issue?

-Conrad

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![headache](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/958977/32.png) [@headache](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/headache)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2009, 5:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/passenger-bignum-too-big-to-convert-into-long/173897/3 "2009-08-18T17:09:52Z")

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> Dietrich, is it possible for you to generate a minimal test case  
> that reproduces this issue?
> 
> -Conrad

That’s a great idea - I need to try that